There's a new version of Google Keep rolling out to Android devices, but it's not going to look very different unless you are looking in exactly the right spot. The screen for drawing notes is now equipped with the "Grab image text" function. Shifting gears slightly, a teardown also reveals some new drawing functions are going to be added to the same screen in a future update. As usual, there's a link at the bottom where you can download the latest version.

What's New

Unofficial Changelog:

Added "Grab image text" to drawn notes

Grab image text from drawings

Comparison: previous on the left, latest on the right.

If you're something of a Keep power user – yes, that's a thing – you might already know about a command called "Grab image text" in the overflow menu of the image viewer. It uses OCR to read the image and determine if there is some usable text inside, then dumps what it can read into the text area of the note. There's a chance you've also gone looking for the same functionality in the Drawing mode, but found it was missing. Those days are over, Keep v3.4 brings the Grab Image Text command over to Drawing mode.

Teardown

Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released.

The features discussed below are probably not live yet, or may only be live for a small percentage of users. Unless stated otherwise, don't expect to see these features if you install the apk.

New features for Drawing mode

Continuing with the enhancements to the drawing mode, some text added to the resources of this release reveal plans to add three new creation tools: text, shapes, and stickers.

If you've used virtually any drawing app before, I can't imagine any of these require much explanation. Stickers and shapes will surely come with their own panels for selecting what you want. Likewise, the text tool will surely include some basic selectors for size and color, and possibly even a chooser for fonts. Keep isn't meant to be a full graphics editor, so it's surely not going to get any overly rich editing features; but these tools could certainly make it easier to produce a usable image for people that are inept at drawing (like me).

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Comments

I wish they added a way to export/share the image without having to take a screenshot.

Ankit Pant

Yeah.. Why haven't they added an option to save image or drawing?? It is really useful and i think everyone needs it..

demarcmj

Or just add image annotation to the edit options in Photos. Usually the only reason I ever bring an image into Keep is because it's a convenient place to mark them up. But then getting them back out again is a pain.

Same here! I've been using this feature from day one. One good example was when as at someone's house and asked to connect to the Wi-Fi. Instead of typing in that stupid long default password, I took a picture and used "grab image text" then copy and pasted! Love this feature.

Impulse_Vigil

Clever, imma have to steal that.

brnpttmn

Same here.

Red5

This is one of the most powerful and underrated apps that Google has made. It's one of my favorite apps.

I would appreciate it if there was a true Shopping List option. Like, if I want to tell my family we need Milk, I don't exactly know how to do that.

I can make a list, and I can add Milk to it, and the person who goes shopping can cross Milk off and get it. But then it just stays crossed off.

It's very early in the morning so I may not be working at full capacity but do you know what I mean? And do you have a solution haha

Impulse_Vigil

The fact that crossed off items drop to the bottom is actually rather useful, tho I think there's a setting to alter that behavior. In any case, we barely ever add new stuff to our shared shopping list of common stuff, we just leave the items crossed off and then uncross them when stuff runs out... Makes it even quicker to use.

Totally agree. Using it for quick lists for grocery trips paired with Android Wear is amazing.

Maybe this is a thing, but it'd be nice if notes could be labeled and not show up in the main "inbox" like view. I see archiving does that, but it's not really how I want to think about it organizationally. More like how Todoist has "projects" for tasks.

Also, just a few more colors for notes would be great!

Howard Stern ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ

my fav app to use. I literally would not know what to do without Keep, seriously. I love that they keep enhancing this.

Red5

I see what you did there. Keep the puns coming.

Howard Stern ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ

seriously though, I am with you.....one of the best apps out.

Acrobat1991

So am I understanding the part about "text" correctly? Will we be able to change size, font, etc (bold, underline, etc) of our notes in the near future? That is the only thing that this app (and on the web) is missing from my point of view and been waiting long for it.

I'm guessing that those will be available, but that's because it's fairly standard to have some basic options for controlling the appearance of text if you're supposed to add it to a drawing.

Acrobat1991

Not sure I understand your reply or you understood my comment. I don't personally care about editing text in an image. I just want to edit (bold, underline, size, etc) in the text in my Keep note themselves (without images). For example, if I have a recipe in my note I'd like to bold/underline the word "Ingredients" then have the list of all ingredients below without them being bold underline. Can't do this right now in Keep!

Ahh, yep, I didn't get that out of your original comment. In that case, I haven't seen any sign that they're going to add basic text formatting for regular notes. I'd really like to see it too. I just created a note I'll be referencing for years and I'd love to have basic formatting (and bullets).

mxwp

Just hope they keep this app simple and don't bloat it with too many features. I don't want it to become like Evernote or One Note.